Mass Effect 3.7: "That was for Thane"

[SiuiS]

Well. I just did a solo run on Dagger with my Krogan soldier. I got the medal for 75 melee kills. I didn't even know that was a thing! Anyway, the commendation pack showed up right away, which is a nice touch.

75? Is it a platinum medal? O_O waaaant
Are you sure it wasn't just 75 kills? I let myself get mulched after 50 for the gold medal.

Benning: 1.14 g, Atmosphere breathable enough to serve as a fairly populous human colony (Firebase Ghost is very obviously a slum), but not as much detail on that.
Pragia: 0.87 g, Atmosphere breathable enough for batarians, and presumably humans as well.

Hm. A difference of .27 G, when heavy rain on 1G is sufficient to feel like being punched by pigeons, an increase of 14% might be sufficient to make my point, but yeah it's pretty hollow.

What was it again? It's kinda gotten lost in the shuffle.

The mechanism of shielding detects incoming projectiles of a certain energy (I think half mass by square of velocity) and directs a mass effect plane to increase the mass of that projectile, slowing it down (as the velocity is the same but the mass is too much for that energy to keep it going) and draining some of the reserve energy. Rapid fire weapons not only engage the mechanism in quick order, but require extra energy be expended because VI needs to emit shields all over the place - each suit comes with many, many emitters for efficient placement of small mass effect barriers only where needed.

In theory, the rain at sufficiently high mass on a higher gravity planet would strike with just enough force to trigger the mechanism — constantly. The changing of the shields for Me2 means that even such low-impact effects as melee strikes and thrown rocks would trigger the shield, so rain makes sense as a trigger. But that's supposition, because I don't know how the change to shields, this "hardening" works.

Having just played the Fuel Depots mission, I can confirm that it does involve toxic levels of radiation, depicted as clouds of greenish gas that you need to disperse.


Anyway. I recently decided to play through the entire Mass Effect trilogy for the first time, and I came across - this evening - one of the few instances in which my enjoyment of media was enhanced by spoilers.

Spoiler

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I knew, going into the final mission on Rannoch, that there were three possible results: I could betray the Geth, leading Legion to turn on me; I could let the Quarians die, leading to Tali's death; or I could broker peace between them, and everything would be happy forever. As a pro-free-Geth, Tali-romancing Paragon Shepard, the last choice was obviously the best one.

So I go kill a reaper, and brace myself to make some wicked peace, yo. Legion brings up the idea of using Reaper upgrades to make all Geth truly sentient, Tali objects because General Warmonger is charging the Geth fleet, and then I get the choice: upload the upgrades and doom the Quarian fleet, or backstab Legion and the entire Geth race. Wait, where's my third option?

Where's the third option?

If I hadn't thought that I held the lives of Legion and Tali in my hands with that one decision, I don't think I would have ended up staring at the screen in mute, wide-eyed horror. I certainly would have felt some of the gravity of the moment, but not with vivid, terrifying intensity - it wouldn't really have sunk in. Betray a fledgling, oft-betrayed AI race - not so different to EDI, a loyal companion - to save the life of Shepard's beloved, out of naked fear and selfishness. Or give them the chance to truly live, at the cost of the Quarians who trusted Shepard, who Shepard had been fighting for, Tali most of all. The cursor flicked back and forth between the two choices; again and again, I came to the brink of selecting one, only to back down, uncertain again.

But what it boiled down to, in the end, is that there was a chance - however slim - that no one else had to die. Betraying the Geth was a hopeless choice, born from fear. ("I won't let fear compromise who I am.") I couldn't choose it. And if that meant losing Tali, then... so be it. Upload the upgrades.

I was very gratified when it turned out that the next thing I could do was Paragonning the Quarian fleet to stand down. Less so when Legion's last words were keelah sel'ai. Ow, that hurt.

I don't think I'm going to be forgetting that anytime soon. Right up there with the last rendition of Scientist Salarian and praying for Thane.

oh man, wow. Yeah. That was brutal, and only my inchoate rage at Han Geral made this easier for me.

Even worse, my friend Xanatos. He had romanced Tali, but due to a quirk he lost Legion. The platform didn't make it through the suicide mission, and that weight carried with him since.

And then, Rannoch. There's only two choices, the geth or Tali. And for the same reasons, Xanatos chose the geth. That's how morality works, you choose irrespective of your personal benefit. And then...

Tali died. She walked off a cliff, and there was a paragon trigger that let Shepard dive to try and save her. She slips through his hands, And... Well, I know Xanatos personally, and I wanted to be there for the guy. I knew this would hit like a Mac truck. It almost broke him, he was dang-near in tears. And then... Moments later, on the way to the Cerberus satellite...


Tali walks in to shepard's room, and promises after their night of romance, "I'll always be here for you, Shepard."
He made it through the rest of the game on pure rage and Grief.